Category Archive

Over the last two years I have been working freelance and my working world has become entirely a project driven world. Creative learning projects with the Arts Council Wales, Mindful Photography Courses with the Brain Injury Service and my own photography projects. Each one has followed a similar pattern and I love it. The advantage of project work as I …

Just got back from a hairy trip to Swansea West Pier. Taylor wanted to go look to see if it was surfable, so threw on some clothes and headed down. I persuaded Tay to bring all of his gear, rather than check it out and come back. It was the right decision. The waves were pumping and a few adventurous …

This week I went with Zoe and Emma from the Brain Injury Service, Morriston Hospital to meet Dan at the newly developing Elysium Gallery, Swansea. Dan and Jonathan have this fantastic idea to include a ‘Community Gallery’ within their new art gallery in the High Street. You can see Dan talking to Zoe and Emma in the new space above. …

Were all busy, all of the time. That’s modern life for you. Work, fun, kids, family, friends, things going wrong…..the list rumbles on. How do you cope when it all gets even busier? When your busy life becomes overwhelming busy-ness? Over the last month I have had my busiest period since I went freelance. Being super busy is more than …

I have just submitted this photo for the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. The theme this year is our contemporary world and what can be more contemporary than the Brexit chaos we find ourselves in? Though what things will be like come the summer is anyone’s guess. In creating the photo I went out for a walk with my camera, with …

The final week of our Foundations Skills in Mindful Photography Course finally arrived. This week we recapped on all we had covered: What Mindfulness is; What Mindful Photography is, Clear Seeing, The Four Stage Seeing Practice, Compositional Skills and Abstract Photography. When I say recap, I actually mean an incentive flavoured Q&A. Where the incentive was chocolate for every right …

This week we continued our exploration of Abstract Photography by looking at two great photographers who share a connection: Alfred Stieglitz and Minor White. Both men were inspirational leaders, turning photography into an art form. Stieglitz was probably responsible for the birth of abstract photography through his creation of cloud photographs he called, ‘Equivalents’. For over 10 years from 1922 …

What has abstract photography got to do with Mindful Photography you may ask? Abstract photography has the potential to be a visual method of representing the invisible: things like a thought or feeling, a concept or idea like time or attraction. Representing something visually gives you the opportunity to share something or your life without using words, and that maybe …

Last Friday I was invited by Professor Andrew Kemp to talk about Mindful Photography to his Positive Psychology students. I will be explaining what positive psychology in a moment and exploring the links between it and what I do. There are plenty. I should also say that it wasn’t really a ‘talk’, more an experiential workshop. After an outline of …

Week 4 brings us to Photography Composition, with a mindful twist. Now photography composition is an area of knowledge that generates books and courses on its own, and I cover it in two 2.5 hour lessons. Obviously, I have a particularly mindful approach, one that centres upon following a compositional guideline as a mindful practice. But I am getting ahead …

The beginning of the Foundation Skills Course in Mindful Photography is all about encouraging your ability to see a photo. An easy ambition you may think. Seeing a photo implies an ability to see a photographic opportunity. Perhaps the major challenge lies in that thought that may just have popped in to your head, “How do I create a good …

Using Seeing as your anchor for Mindful Photography The Foundation Skills Course centres upon using Seeing as your anchor for Mindful Photography. If you are to create fabulous photos that say something of your world and are not just like anyone else’s, then you need to really pay attention to what you can see. You may think that this is …

This week was the first of my rebranded Mindful Photography Course. I’ve changed the name of the first 8 week course to ‘Foundation Skills’. The content is still the same and covers an introduction to Mindfulness, Mindful Photography and three key topics. The first is Clear Seeing – how you can improve your seeing and use seeing as your mindful anchor when …

Mindfulness + Photography = Mindful Photography In 2017 I published a post called ‘Developing Mindfulness through Photography’ that explained how mindfulness could be developed and applied to photography. I detailed my understanding of mindful photography’s roots, offered 10 reasons to embrace it and shared a useful Mindful Photography Practice. If you haven’t seen it just follow the link above. The …

Mindful Photography in action Digital Photography is fantastic. Its ability to capture what we see and allow instant review has revolutionised photography. It has changed how we create photographs and how we edit them. But perhaps the most fundamental change is that it has supercharged the creation of a photograph. Photographic creation and sharing is now like a Ferrari 812 …

The feeling of an evolution is a constant for every artist who is pursuing the search of refinement and enlargement of his/her own means of expression. Andrea Bocelli Living a mindful life encourages an attention to the moment, a paying attention that inspires the development of skillful responses to difficulty rather than an habitual reaction. The wisdom that underpins this …

Over the last couple of months I have been supporting ‘A Mental Picture’ an ABMU Health Board Heritage Project in Partnership with Swansea University & Swansea Museum. My role has been to provide photography guidance and support to the people who come on our tours of Cefn Coed Hospital in Swansea. Cefn Coed Hospital building work began in 1928, utilising …

“Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race …

In my efforts to live a more mindful life I have noticed (and the noticing is a fundamental part of this practice) that sometimes I reach a place when I am uncertain what is next. As a guy who is quite focussed and keen to develop my work in line with the way I am living, I get a little …

Last Friday was a momentous day for our group. The last session of “Who Am I Now?”, the last one of 16 weeks together. For this course was the follow up the “Developing Mindfulness through Photography” Course. Two 8 week courses where much has been learnt, shared and experienced. For our last week, in true teacher style, I led the …